Web as a voice platform

Web as a voice platform, there is so much that can be achieved in this space. I would call this as a voice and web mashup. Web as a platform is in itself a very abstract terminology that can be applied to so many different technologies that can ride on the web. I like the idea of creating companies that harness the power of web, to name a few, Google search, Amazon, eBay etc. All these companies use web as a platform to connect to diverse community and consumers. For the past couple of years, we have been seeing great innovations happening in this space. Thanks to web 2.0 companies (myspace, facebook, youtube etc) that made this happen.
What I mean by web as a voice platform is; consumers can use web interface to communicate with users or group of users without the need to download/install software on their laptop or desktop. With web being available everywhere, all u need is a data connection. I guess this vision was partly responsible for IMS evolution. Alas, where is IMS ? I read so many articles talking about IMS not holding its ground. (IMS at cross roads, I will talk about IMS in one of my future articles very soon.). Users can connect to their friends, family or business using the web voice interface and communicate real time. All this can be done with no software downloaded or installed on the computer. From a user standpoint, they don’t care about how the technology works, all they care about is the ease with which they can connect and communicate with others using the web.
We are already seeing lot of voice web innovations happening; here is a quick list of some applications that are holding the fort for now:
• Web based call me widgets ( jaxtr,jangl,grandcentral etc)
• Web based contact me widgets ( jaduka, skype etc)
• Browser based softphone ( gizmo call, busta, goribbit etc)
• Web based voice group communication ( yackpack )
• Web based live voice conference. ( unified communication )
• Web based voicemail message retrieval. ( unified messaging)
• Click to call ( eStara, jajah, ifbyphone etc).
( I might have missed some of them, buzz me with the info )
We can always argue that a platform is something on which we can build/program applications; for e.g. OS or desktop. I guess platform is a place holder for diverse application development. The platform should be able to support development of these applications. To support my argument, everything you do on windows OS like office apps, email or messaging can be easily done using a browser or web interface. I think it’s a good start and we are not yet there. Hopefully, it’s a matter of time before we have a browser that can pretty much do everything a desktop does. At last, freedom from your laptops and desktops. Off course, you can’t live without these (just for the geeks).